Darling of the minute, Elizabeth Grant - better known as 'Lana Del Rey' - describes her particular brand of disarming, old school beauty meets nostalgic, Americana warbling as 'Hollywood Sadcore', with her stage name being inspired by film noir femme fatale, Lana Turner, and the Ford Del Rey automobile.
Labelling herself as 'the modern, gangster Nancy Sinatra', if anything her morose vocal stylings more closely resemble those of Cat Power and Tori Amos. Meanwhile, her videos hark back to bygone eras, collaging Valley of the Dolls type imagery with footage from The Last Waltz and the infamous Chateau Marmont Hotel on Sunset Boulevard.
Interestingly, the acclaim she has thus far received for songs like Video Games and Blue Jeans has been accompanied by a considerable amount of backlash, with critics accusing her of being a sort of knowing, hipsteresque construction, and a purveyor of 'postmodern simulacra'. Somewhat absurdly, her sizable lips also seem to be a source of great offence.
Admittedly, not all of her tracks are gems, and some are definitely on the gimmicky side but, naysaying aside, sometimes the only thing for it is to silence the cynicism and listen to a beautiful girl singing a beautiful song.
